Video & Review of the Apple iPad

It’s amazing! Yesterday, instead of the State of the Union campaign speech, Katie and I decided to watch the Steve Jobs’s Keynote Address. We had heard that Apple would be releasing their “Tablet” computer and we were excited to see their developments. We are both iPhone users. Our emails, calendars, contacts, etc are synced with our google gmail accounts. I use my iphone for almost everything except for heavy web surfing and extended research projects. It is a great for quick and easy tasks. But, for any project that would take longer than a few minutes, I wind up using my desktop computer.

I have been in the market for a laptop computer. Something that I can use on the run. Something fast and light but capable of taking on a few larger tasks every now and then. Enter, the iPad.

What it DOES do:

Surfing the Web ANYWHERE (Wifi+3G): Wow! With a 10 inch touch screen, you can hold the internet in the palm of your hand! This is powerful and brings life to websites! Now, any website can have an closer relationship with the user. This well revolutionize how websites are designed!

Checking, Responding, & Composing Email: So you are in a coffee shop and you receive an important email that you need to respond to. Instead of a little iPhone keyboard or blackberry keyboard, you flip the iPad sideways and have access to a nearly full size keyboard! Work from anywhere! You can compose longs emails or just a short word or two. This will be one of the most often used features of the device for me.

Calendar Management: Katie and I use the calendar functions on our iphone in sync with our google accounts. When I change a meeting time or date on my phone, it also changes on her phone so we are always on the same page. The calendar application on the iPad is 100 X’s better than the iphone! The app is about the size of a bound calendar/journal & the look and feel is excellent and intuitive!

Contact Management:The contact management is Ok. They are sorted well and easily found. However, there seem to be a few holes with this that I will cover later.

Navigating with Maps: While I didn’t hear the mention of a GPS, the calendar app is beautiful! View the streets from overhead, satellite, hybrid, & now google’s street view!

Taking Notes: The notepad app better be good (because the entire devise emulates a “notepad”) and it looks really nice! It looks very similar to the iPhone “notes” application that I rarely use. I would use it more if I could type faster, create list that I can checkmark, etc. I’m excited to see how this app will work.

Enjoying Photos: The iPhoto app is beautiful! Awesome effects, easily organized, slideshows on a whelm, it’s awesome.

Enjoying Videos & Movies: This is in two parts. Part 1: personal and business videos shared with friends, family, and clients. This will be VERY useful! Part 2: iTunes movies, purchased and rented. Katie and I would watch one of these on a plane or on the road or maybe even in bed. We don’t always need a 42 inch screen and surround sound. The IPS tech they use on the screen allows the screen to be viewed well from any angle and the LED back lighting gives the vibrant color and detail.

Enjoying Music & Audio Books: Again, with the iPod app, you can play audio books, music, speeches while you work, just like your iPhone or iPod.

Enjoying eBooks! (iBooks): I am REALLY excited about this. I enjoy reading, but I hate lugging around a ton of books! I am usually reading a couple of nonfiction business books, a Christian theology or inspiration book, a fiction book or two and I don’t want to carry those around everywhere I go! I hope that this app will have highlighting tools and the ability to insert and save notes on a text. I would also like the ability to convert other ebooks that I have already purchased to the ibook format!

Third Party Applications: Lastly, just like the iPhone & iPod touch, anyone can create an application to use on the iPad. This is a huge reason that the iPhone has had so much success. If you have a need, want, interest, or hobby, there is an app for that!

What it DOES NOT do?

There are a few things that this “Tablet” computer is missing that would make it PERFECT.

Flash Enabled Browsing: Lets go apple! Pick up the slack here! The safari web browser for iPhone has the same problem and on the keynote example, I noticed that the iPad is in the same boat! You HAVE to get a flash enabled version for these two devices… Better idea, GOOGLE, create your chrome browser for iphone & iPad!! (Here is a really good article from fortune mag that discussing this topic: http://bit.ly/9wsmi6)

GPS: Where is the GPS connection? I may have missed it, but I didn’t see any GPS listed. This would be incredibly useful for navigation and integrating various features into the maps application & other iPad applications!

Edge: In Arkansas, 3G is available in major cities, but if you travel outside of the major cities, you have to rely on the “edge” network from AT&T for data connection over the network. I don’t think this will be an option for the iPad, so if you are outside of major areas, you will have to memorize and note the Wifi hot spots!

Microsoft Office Suite: Lets be practical, the business applications for the iPad could be INCREDIBLE, but there needs to be a microsoft office suite created for this device! I know they have “iWork” but the compatibility with other people & programs in your company will be limited! I hope microsoft will seize the opportunity and create a quality Microsoft Office for iPad! You wouldn’t need to be composing extensive reports or presentations (xls, doc, ppt), but minor edits of them & viewing them would be the primary functions of the Office for iPad.

More Storage: The largest iPad will only hold 64 gigabytes of data. This is “ok”, but I’m surprised that it isn’t at least in the hundreds. Maybe they are saving some for the iPad 2.0. Another point that they are attempting to convey is that this is not a laptop and is not a substitute for a desktop computer. Apple wants to push you into the new age of storing your data and information on a “cloud” and accessing that cloud through an internet connection. This is fast, light, and streamlined, but I don’t think that the general public is there.yet. I want to be, but I don’t trust 2 things: 1, that I will have access all the time & 2, that the cloud is fool proof and safe.

Quality Contact Management Software: This maybe more of a general criticism of contact management software from apple and google, but they need to take a note from professional companies like ACT! and develop their contact management system. For instance, when I change a contact that Katie and I are sharing, I want it to change for Katie too. I would like to add multiple notes and activities in the history. When I make a call, I would like it noted and attached to the contact’s record. Same thing for email. It isn’t a difficult feature to add, but one that would be HUGELY helpful! This would have great business a personal applications!

& Lastly: A Good Name: So, iPad has some bad connotations that Apple will have to overcome. There are already claims of other people saying they own the rights to this horrible name. That happened with the iPhone too. I wonder why they didn’t call it a MacTablet or iTablet or iNotepad. iPad just sounds bad. But, it isn’t a huge worry to me nor will it be to most Apple fans.

Thanks for reading my review! I might think of a few other things I would like to see added, but in general, I think the iPad is a great “go between” from a high powered desktop computer and a very mobile iPhone. I think it is what the laptop computer should have always been! I’m excited to see more innovations in the future!

So, what do you think about this thing?